The Miami Heat agreed to ban players from wearing Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s shoes when the teams faced off in the playoffs a few years ago.
“Tyler Herro said the Heat banned Giannis Antetokounmpo’s sneakers from everyone’s feet several years ago when they faced the Bucks in the playoffs, but that was by team agreement, not the fiat of one grizzled vet,” The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov wrote.
The Heat and Bucks have met in the postseason in three of the last four years, turning their matchups into a bit of a rivalry.
The first game in the NBA’s Orlando, Fla. bubble in the 2019-20 season. Miami knocked off the top-seeded Bucks in the second round to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Antetokounmpo was injured in that series, missing Game 5 where Miami polished off the Bucks.
In the 2020-21 season, the two teams met again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The Bucks rolled through the Heat in four games and eventually went on to win the NBA Finals.
Fast forward to this season, and the Heat and Bucks are matched up in the first round once again. Antetokounmpo injured his back in Game 1, allowing the Heat to pull off an upset win in Milwaukee.
However, even with the two-time MVP sitting out Game 2, Miami came up short and is now tied 1-1 with the Bucks in the series.
There aren’t as many intense rivalries in the NBA as there were a decade or two ago, but players clearly still have some rules that they follow to not give their opponents an edge.
“I don’t know why guys don’t look at that as serious as they used to,” Heat veteran Udonis Haslem said. “At the end of the day, I guess it really doesn’t matter. If the opponent doesn’t look at it that way, then it really doesn’t matter.”
There’s no doubt that Antetokounmpo is one of the best players in the NBA, but the Heat aren’t going to back down to him and the Bucks this season.
Miami has underperformed after making the Eastern Conference Finals last season, ending up in the No. 8 seed in the East. The team can erase the mistakes of the regular season and the play-in tournament by taking down the Bucks in the first round.
Game 3 of the Heat’s first-round series takes place on Saturday, April 22 in Miami.
